Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

The car just so happened to have the "best" final drive you can get in a 4t40e transaxle. I think its 3.63. The 4t40e in the car already has a 2.96 first gear, so apart from going to a 5 speed, there was no real room for improvement there.

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

i thought there was a 3.91 ration but i could be wrong

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

Now that I think about it, you're correct. And I think this car just so happened to come with the 3.91 final drive. But I don't remember exactly. The original window sticker is in the glove box. More than likely it would say what the car has.

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

if you do not mind i may ask about tuning one of there with the hp setup

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

Feel free to PM me with any questions you have.

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

Have you thought of doing solid lifters? Our dirt motors were sensitive to oil weight, always felt it was lifter collapse. By tuning down the oil pressure mite be worth some power. Tom

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

is the front wheels now 13" and did that require the calipers to be modified?

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

Ummmmm, they may have been "massaged" a little bit.
I'm going to be trying a pair of 22x8-15 M/T slicks (very old and NLA) on it this weekend because my young associate is giving me a "hard time" as I'm constantly going red in the car because of the really short (19.5 Hoosier NLA) slick. I don't like the idea of doing things that may slow the car down but as my associate has (rather sternly) told me, "Ya can win the race just running the index. Ya can't win anything going red!"

There's a tire company in Indiana Pa. called American Racer Tires that makes road-racing and circle-track tires and makes some short slicks. I have to take some time and go check them out as none of the drag racing tire manufacturers make any really short stuff anymore.

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

thank you, this build has inspired me. i am currently looking for a Cav.

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

Your associate is a very smart person Billy, and we both need to listen to them.

We both need the extra gear ratio (to run faster), that the short FWD slicks provide, but as you say are mainly now NLA, but if given away at the tree w/ the big red eye, there is no dance moves at the big end at the stripe, so choices have to be made that neither 1 of us are as comfortable with as we need to be.

Personally I can just red light all day long w/my 20" tall MT/ET FWD slicks (-.005, -.007, etc.), or pick a safe .032, .033, .032 series of 3 lights over a single day of Q1, C1 Final, and E1), or laze to a too safe losing series of .062, Q3 and .065 E1, like I just did this LODRS over 2 days, race, the closer double 0's, and teens so far are eluding me, and am adjusting myself (the nut behind the wheel), biologically instead of the car, or my body mechanically or outright physically using the brain and light spot changes physically, w/lots of pass by pass adjusting (early morning racing is so much different than afternoon/night racing in my particular
case that is), when you are older, a night owl by nature, and a lifetime coffee drinker. So, this last event it was 1 cup plus (red light Q1), then 1/2 cup (missed Q2 due to a bent and disconnected shifter cable at the shifter in the lanes...fixed within an hr. or so, w/extra new cable carried), then no coffee (a lazy .062 Q3), then 2 cups of decaf (.065 consistency day to day, but cost a bit against a .053...giving away a hundredth at the tree in E1 is hard to make up dancing on the big end for sure against really fast company when in a slow sled.

But, at least you then have a chance and a dancing partner instead of someone else celebrating and way behind you all the way end to end. There are a lot of ways to lose a race in a faster car leaving (a ton harder and faster), far behind us.

We just need to allow them to use all those chances and possibilities and while also attempting to slam the doors shut, not shutting them too hard, and not on our own fingers and/ or stubbing our own toes! (LOL, nothing in life is easy).

But, this game is superbly fun beyond belief!

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

OK? Were you still "doing" coffee when you wrote this?

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

[QUOTE

There's a tire company in Indiana Pa. called American Racer Tires that makes road-racing and circle-track tires and makes some short slicks. I have to take some time and go check them out as none of the drag racing tire manufacturers make any really short stuff anymore.[/QUOTE]

Billy ,The American Racer tires are great . Used to be McCreary race tires. I used them for years on my own and others street cars I built . They worked great on the dealerships 9 second street AMX I built . lot of selection on compounds too, and they have a lot of "little" tire sizes.

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

Billy ,The American Racer tires are great . Used to be McCreary race tires. I used them for years on my own and others street cars I built . They worked great on the dealerships 9 second street AMX I built . lot of selection on compounds too, and they have a lot of "little" tire sizes.[/QUOTE]


thanks tom

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

I finally got out to a T&T yesterday. Not surprisingly the 22x8 tires slowed the car down almost exactly a tenth. However surprisingly, they also slowed my RT down about 6 hundredths! I didn't expect so much but it does keep my lights green! I guess that next season I'll be going to "tight" tracks with the 22" slicks and "loose" tracks with the 19.5s.

Oh just one more thing, I'm FINALLY getting zeroed in on getting the engine and trans temps "happy" together and my last run of the year I was rewarded with a 14.625 @ 92.69 MPH! .975 under! Take that Bob.

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

If a car is in the guide, it's a combo.....to be developed. Doesn't have to be a 8 second bomb.

Kudos to someone who will take an oddball combination (slant 6 for an example, Mike Jeffries) and make it run, and run well. And go rounds. Keep it up Billy, you are an innovator!!

#5458

Curt Rees

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

I've been spending some of my spare time moving some things around in the frontend of the Cavalier. The alignment is one of the things that I have neglected on this car simply because I've been keeping myself busy with other things. No excuses.
The car was always a bit "darty"(?) for lack of a better word in high gear but it always stopped straight and isn't at any point a "handful".
I'm setting the camber at zero for lack of a better place to start and assuming that trying to keep the slicks "flat" with the track can't be a bad thing. There is no real caster adjustment on these cars so I'm "slotting" my upper strut plate mounting holes to get myself some positive caster. I'll then be setting my toe and I'm thinking to start at about 3/16 or 1/8 out remembering that FWD cars toe IN under acceleration not out like a RWD car.
Then just the long wait for Spring!

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

We had the Monte set slightly negative camber. As the front rose , it started to go positive. Adjustable struts slowed down this motion to where it didn't get to high , or too bad.
(Yes, the front rises, as it reacts to engine torque and rotation.)
1/8th out sounds about right, as the tires try to look at each other, from the torque reaction.

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

We slotted the holes in the balljoints and used 3/8 grade 8 bolts to get caster. Never had a problem on dirt. Tom

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

I was going to say "how about an update Billy...then I saw you said you're waiting for spring too....I keep thinking all Americans have Texas weather 24/7/365, LOL!!

How about, "any more progress"?

Re: Not for Nuthin' But Close!
 

Ya know, it sure would be nice if the NHRA would add a couple of FWD classes! These 3 lb. weight breaks make it almost impossible to change classes. Since they changed the breaks last year, I've been running CF/S mainly because that's really the only practical class that I can run. The way the breaks are now, I would have to ADD 420 lbs.(!?!) to go to DF/S or remove 420 lbs.(not possible) to go to BF/S. Any ideas?